From drug abuse to Mumbai blasts, Sanjay Dutt has had a roller-coaster ride.. It’s time to set him free!

I was watching an old Sanjay Dutt movie, ‘Khalnayak’, that was playing on Star Plus the other day. After the movie got over, I was hit by nostalgia and suddenly, I could feel tears roll down. Was I missing Sanjay Dutt? Yes. The film also transported me back to the good old days in the 90s. We were all so innocent then.

I remember my friends and I took off from the hostel to catch the action-packed movie at Chanakya. Yes, Chanakya was functional then. We watched the movie and were back in the hostel by dinner time.

I had found my hero. I read him up and was hugely impressed with the way he rehabilitated himself after a long tryst with drug addiction. He came out a winner. Only 2 percent of recovering addicts manage to sustain their abstinence, the rest relapse. I thought a man couldn’t fight a bigger battle.

He was the rock star of my generation: tall, well-built, long hair and had an easygoing personality.

I didn’t know how to react to my tears..

Sanjay Dutt is serving jail sentence in Pune and we all seem to have forgotten him. Salman Khan got away with murder, there are so many examples of influential people who have managed to dodge justice.

Why has the justice system applied different standards for different people? It is a fact that an AK-56 rifle was recovered from Sanju Baba’s home. However, that cannot mean that he conspired with terrorists and Dawood Ibrahim to kill Indians! It was a clear case of ‘blunder’ Had Sanjay Dutt understood the gravity of the situation, he most definitely wouldn’t have been where he is today, at Yerwada jail in Pune, serving a 42-month long ban.

He has served quite a bit of it and the Courts should consider releasing him early. People are put behind bars to ensure that they don’t harm anyone. Jail is for the unrepentant, for those who cannot be relied upon to live an honest life.

Sanjay Dutt, apart from that one unfortunate event during the ‘Bombay Blasts’, has been a model citizen. He has been punished enough now. His conduct in the jail has been exemplary. He is 55 and life is passing him by. He is no longer a threat to our society, he never was. Completing time will solve no purpose.

Sanjay Dutt’s reformation is complete. Let him free!

The Court needed to consider various facts but apparently, it failed to find any weightage in the argument that he was receiving threatening call from the Dawood Ibrahim gang. Sanjay Dutt’s sisters, Priya Dutt and Namrata Dutt, had said very categorically that Sanjay Dutt had to keep the arms as he felt his family was in grave danger. He was only taking measures to protect his family.

Anyone would do the same thing.

On top of it all, Sanjay Dutt has already gone to jail thrice for different periods. He has children and a full family. He is not going to be a threat to anyone. Why keep him locked up?